Why English majors “see developing the moral imagination as more important than securing economic self-justification,” why conversations with mass murderers are often disappointing, why the readers of Snarkmarket are all doomed, and more, in my favorite graduation speech of 2005 so far, by Mark Danner.

By the way, I finally read this, and while I of course dig the message — yeah moral imagination! — didn’t the whole thing seem awfully self-congratulatory as well? “Yes, it’s a good thing we are so smart and skeptical here. Because no one else is.”